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This paper examines the possibilities for nature in contemporary times through a ground‐up investigation of nature practices in Chennai, India. It navigates dissonant strands of scholarship on the promise of urban regions as sites of exemplary social natures with an analytical framework that examines how autonomous nonhuman life in Chennai is variously enabled and inhibited. By studying a breadth of natures and nature practices within this urban site (instead of focusing on a particular species or habitat), the paper illuminates the socio‐material processes that undermine some natures even while supporting others, highlighting paradoxical responses to nonhuman agencies and resilience within the domain of ecological concern. The simultaneous analysis of Chennai's abundant and diminishing natures explains dissonances in urban natures scholarship, while offering fresh insights on more equitable approaches to nonhuman nature in human‐dominated landscapes. Specifically, it points to the value of reconfiguring concepts and practices of nature, both within and beyond conservation, in ways that are attentive to the plural forms of nonhuman flourishing and experiential vulnerability. Any meaningful prospect for more‐than‐human futures in urbanising worlds, the paper argues, rests not on biopolitical conservation that seeks to reproduce the past or build future ecologies of ‘legitimate’ natures, but on desisting from the displacement of, and re‐allowing room – conceptual, material and ethical – for already existing natures, whether scientifically valued or unintentional, whether imperilled or flourishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community composition in aquatic environments can be shaped by a broad array of factors, encompassing habitat conditions in addition to abiotic conditions and biotic interactions. This paper pertains to reaction–diffusion–advection predator–prey model featuring a variable predator habitat in advective environments, governed by a unidirectional flow. First, we establish the near‐complete global dynamics of the system. In instances where the functional response to predation conforms to Holling‐type I or II, we explore the uniqueness and stability of positive steady‐state solutions via the application of particular auxiliary techniques, the comparison principle for parabolic equations, and perturbation analysis. Furthermore, we obtain the critical positions at the upper and lower boundaries of the predator's habitat, which determine the survival of the prey irrespective of the predator's growth rate. Finally, we show how the location and length of the predator's habitat affect the persistence and extinction of predators and prey in the event of a small population loss rate at the downstream end. From the biological point of view, these results contribute to our deeper understanding of the effects of habitat on aquatic populations and may have applications in aquaculture and the establishment of protection zones for aquatic species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predator–prey interactions are a fundamental part of community ecology, yet the relative importance of consumptive and nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) (defined as a risk‐induced response that alters prey fitness) has not been resolved. Theory suggests that the emergence and subsequent predominance of consumptive or NCEs depend on the given habitat's complexity as well as predator hunting mode and spatial domain sizes of both predator and prey, but their relative influence on the outcome of predator–prey interactions is unknown. We built agent‐based models in NetLogo to simulate predator–prey interactions for three hunting modes—sit‐and‐wait, sit‐and‐pursue, and active—while concurrently simulating large versus small spatial domain sizes for both predators and prey. We studied (1) how hunting mode and spatial domain size interact to influence the emergence of consumptive or NCEs and (2) how, when NCEs do dominate, hunting mode and spatial domain separately or additively determine prey shifts in time, space, and habitat use. Our results indicate consumptive effects only dominate for active predators when prey habitat domains overlap completely with the predator's spatial domain and when sit‐and‐wait and sit‐and‐pursue predators and their prey both have large spatial domains. Prey are most likely to survive when they shift their time but most frequently shift their habitat. Our paper helps to better understand the underlying mechanisms that drive consumptive or NCEs to be most dominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agglomeration bonus (AB) has been advocated as an incentive mechanism to boost spatially coordinated conservation efforts, where such coordination is thought to be beneficial to achieving biodiversity or other ecological outcomes. Specifically, an AB is paid to individual landholders if their conserved habitats are spatially connected to the conserved habitats of adjacent neighbours. This paper employs a series of controlled lab experiments with agriculture students to investigate the performance of AB in budget‐constrained discriminatory‐price auctions across different landscape types. We focus on the spatial correlation of opportunity costs and environmental benefits as one potentially important aspect of the landscape. We set up a stylised agricultural landscape where the conservation agency aims to connect fragmented wildlife habitats by incentivising farmers to enrol land in a conservation programme. We investigate the effects of an AB in landscapes where opportunity costs and environmental benefits are uncorrelated, negatively correlated or positively correlated over space. We found that the benefits of an AB in improving landscape‐scale environmental outcomes were significant in the positive correlation landscape. However, the AB resulted in worse outcomes in the uncorrelated and negative landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: As climate change increases the frequency and severity of droughts in many regions, conservation during drought is becoming a major challenge for ecologists. Droughts are multidimensional climate events whose impacts may be moderated by changes in temperature, water availability or food availability, or some combination of these. Simultaneously, other stressors such as extensive anthropogenic landscape modification may synergize with drought. Useful observational models for guiding conservation decision‐making during drought require multidimensional, dynamic representations to disentangle possible drought impacts, and consequently, they will require large, highly resolved data sets. In this paper, we develop a two‐stage predictive framework for assessing how drought impacts vary with species, habitats and climate pathways. Location: Central Valley, California, USA. Methods: We used a two‐stage counterfactual analysis combining predictive linear mixed models and N‐mixture models to characterize the multidimensional impacts of drought on 66 bird species. We analysed counts from the eBird participatory science data set between 2010 and 2019 and produced species‐ and habitat‐specific estimates of the impact of drought on relative abundance. Results: We found that while fewer than a quarter (16/66) of species experienced abundance declines during drought, nearly half of all species (27/66) changed their habitat associations during drought. Among species that shifted their habitat associations, the use of natural habitats declined during drought while use of developed habitat and perennial agricultural habitat increased. Main Conclusions: Our findings suggest that birds take advantage of agricultural and developed land with artificial irrigation and heat‐buffering microhabitat structure, such as in orchards or parks, to buffer drought impacts. A working lands approach that promotes biodiversity and mitigates stressors across a human‐induced water gradient will be critical for conserving birds during drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a compilation of research papers and case studies that explore the impact of climate change on habitat restoration in Australia. It discusses various strategies to make restoration efforts more resilient, including altering planting timing, using older/deeper-rooted individuals, and direct seeding. The papers also cover topics such as the use of non-native species in restoration projects, the impacts of climate change on native and non-native species, and the importance of considering climate change in restoration planning. The document emphasizes the need for a national model of seed collection and storage and encourages ecologists and practitioners to be innovative in their approaches. The author acknowledges the traditional owners of the land and expresses gratitude to individuals who provided feedback on the manuscript. [Extracted from the article]

Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), a symbol of western North America, experienced diverging population trajectories since the mid‐twentieth century, with northern populations showing signs of recovery while those in the arid Southwest have struggled to persist. We conducted a systematic literature review of papers published through August 2023 to understand 3 questions. What are the habitat conditions needed for pronghorn to persist? What management actions can be taken to foster higher quality habitat? Do these actions differ for populations in the arid Southwest compared to their northern counterparts? Although the fundamental habitat requirements for pronghorn persistence have remained constant since the early 2000s, it has become clear that precipitation is a key factor influencing pronghorn populations in the arid Southwest. The precise mechanisms by which precipitation influences pronghorn population dynamics are not yet clear, whether through the availability of free water, by affecting forage quality, or indirectly via predator‐prey dynamics. Although range‐wide forage enhancement may be impractical, providing additional free water sources could facilitate greater movement, enabling pronghorn to access more and higher quality forage and areas with lower predation risk. To clarify how pronghorn persisted for thousands of years in this harsh environment, we must gain a better understanding of their historical metapopulation and migratory behaviors in the arid Southwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification systems are useful tools for aggregating diseases to study them in more detail. The most widespread system for the classification of human diseases is the International Classification of Diseases (ICD); however, the ICD was designed for use in health care and fails to capture many details of zoonotic diseases as a result.We propose a framework for zoonotic disease classification which combines four known classification types (pathogen type, life cycle, transmission direction and ecosystem) into one systematic method. We chose to focus on four specific aspects to provide as broad an overview as possible of zoonoses, in order to inform the risk of transmission to humans.This framework can be applied to the zoonoses occurring in any non‐human animal species and supports the generation of systematically collected empirical data that are useful for monitoring the spatio‐temporal dynamics of zoonoses.To demonstrate the utility of our framework, we focus on six deer species that are widespread in Eurasia: red deer Cervus elaphus, roe deer Capreolus capreolus, fallow deer Dama dama, sika deer Cervus nippon, Reeves's muntjac Muntiacus reevesi and Chinese water deer Hydropotes inermis. We examined the worldwide occurrence and prevalence of zoonoses in these species through a scoping review of the literature.Altogether, 996 records of zoonotic diseases in the six wild deer species, from 431 peer‐reviewed papers, and 120 zoonotic pathogens were found. Within deer populations, the most prevalent zoonoses were bacterial, while the most prevalent life cycles were metazoonoses. We also found that the most prevalent pathogens in deer were those with hosts capable of occupying sylvatic, peridomestic and domestic ecosystems.Baseline data generated using our framework method can provide important starting points for making projections of human disease risk, assisting wildlife managers and policy‐makers in making wildlife management decisions, and assisting experts in the development of disease‐monitoring and management plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a discrete diffusive predator–prey system involving two competing preys and one predator in a shifting habitat induced by the climate change. By applying Schauder's fixed‐point theorem on various invariant cones via constructing several pairs of generalized super‐ and subsolutions, we establish four different types of supercritical and critical forced extinction waves, which describe the conversion from the state of a saturated aboriginal prey with a pair of invading alien predator–prey, two competing aboriginal coexistent preys with an invading alien predator, a pair of aboriginal coexistent predator–prey and an invading alien prey, and the coexistence of three species to the extinction state, respectively. Meanwhile, the nonexistence of some subcritical forced waves is showed by contradiction. Furthermore, some numerical simulations are given to present and promote the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastrochilus flabelliformis (Blatt. & McCann) C.J.Saldanha is added to the orchid flora of Sri Lanka from the lowland intermediate zone and G. obliquus (Lindl.) Kuntze is omitted from the list. A detailed taxonomic description, color plates, and line drawings with habitat ecology and distribution are provided for the former. Taxonomic notes on the identity of true Gastrochilus dasypogon (Sm.) Kuntze are also discussed in this paper, resulting in the merger of G. acutifolius (≡S. acutifolium), G. denticulatus (≡S. denticulatum), and G. dentatus (≡S. dentatum) under the synonymy of the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expansion is a major threat to diversity, especially in rapidly developing tropical countries where urban areas are growing at great pace and protection is limited.We conducted a systematic review of published research on the ecology of lentic habitats in tropical urban areas. The review focused on understanding: (1) how much is currently known about the biodiversity of these habitats; (2) whether this knowledge is biased towards certain taxonomic groups and/or geographic areas; (3) what is known about the factors influencing their diversity; and (4) which ecosystem services urban lentic habitats provide. The review aimed to establish whether existing knowledge is sufficient to help guide conservation and provide evidence to policy makers of the importance of conserving tropical urban wetlands.We found 64 papers that addressed questions about the diversity and/or distribution of lentic ecosystems within tropical urban areas. Papers came from 15 countries, although almost half (45%) were from India; relatively few countries from Southeast Asia, tropical Africa, or South America were represented in the literature.Publication patterns revealed a growing interest in urban wetlands, but several biases and gaps were evident from the review. Firstly, papers generally focused on larger natural or semi‐natural wetlands, with other types and sizes of lentic habitat under‐represented in published work. Secondly, most papers focused on a single site, with a limited number of multi‐site, city‐wide, or landscape‐scale diversity assessments. Thirdly, studies tended to focus on understanding the influence of water quality on diversity, with work assessing the influence of physical habitat or factors related to dispersal and connectivity very limited. Finally, work assessing the ecosystem services provided by wetlands in tropical urban areas remains narrow in focus, with few quantitative assessments of the relationship between ecological characteristics and ecosystem functions and services.We suggest a number of research focal points and approaches to help address these biases. Research is needed to improve understanding of the distribution patterns tropical freshwater species in urban areas and of the relationships between species diversity and a wider set of environmental and spatial conditions. Overall, there is a need for diversity assessments of tropical urban wetlands of all types and sizes, especially new and novel habitats, and scope for much greater adoption of ecosystem service concepts and evaluation tools to help emphasise the importance of these habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, 50%–70% of former natural grassland area has been destroyed during the past 30 years due to land use changes, losses are expected to increase in the future. Restoration is thought to reverse this situation by creating suitable abiotic conditions. In this paper, we investigate the effects of sod translocation with specific vegetation to facilitate the restoration of a former intensive agricultural field into a wet meadow. First, starting conditions were optimized including modification of the local hydrology, removal of the fertilized topsoil, application of liming, and translocation of fresh clippings as a seed source. The second part aimed at restoring the habitat for the butterfly species Phengaris (Maculinea) teleius, one of the species that was especially affected by the loss of wet meadows. This species engages in a complex myrmecophilous relationship with one host plant, Sanguisorba officinalis, and one obligate host ant, Myrmica scabrinodis. We used sod translocation to create islands of habitat to promote host plant and host ant colonization. After 4 years following the restoration, we observed that plants spread from the transplanted sods to the surroundings. The vegetation composition and structure of the transplanted sods attracted colonization of Myrmica ants into the restored areas. Following the increase in vegetation cover and height, Myrmica ant colonies further spread into the restored areas. Therefore, sod translocations can be considered an effective restoration method following topsoil removal in the process of restoring wet meadows to provide a starting point for ant colonization and plant dispersion. With these findings, this paper contributes to the evidence‐based restoration of wet meadows on former agricultural fields, including complex interactions between invertebrates and their required ecological relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As primary producers and ecosystem engineers, kelp (generally Order Laminariales) are ecologically important, and their decline could have far‐reaching consequences. Kelp are valuable in forming habitats for fish and invertebrates and are crucial for adaptation to climate change by creating coastal defenses and in providing key functions, such as carbon sequestration and food provision. Kelp are threatened by multiple stressors, such as climate change, over‐harvesting of predators, and pollution. In this opinion paper, we discuss how these stressors may interact to affect kelp, and how this varies under different contexts. We argue that more research that bridges kelp conservation and multiple stressor theory is needed and outline key questions that should be addressed as a priority. For instance, it is important to understand how previous exposure (either to earlier generations or life stages) determines responses to emerging stressors, and how responses in kelp scale up to alter food webs and ecosystem functioning. By increasing the temporal and biological complexity of kelp research in this way, we will improve our understanding allowing better predictions. This research is essential for the effective conservation and potential restoration of kelp in our rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landscape pattern of the Black‐necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) habitat in China changed at different spatial scales and long‐term periods due to natural factors and human activities, and habitat reduction and fragmentation threatened the survival of Black‐necked Cranes. The factors driving the habitat landscape pattern and individual population changes of Black‐necked Cranes remain to be studied. In this paper, based on remote sensing data of land use from 1980 to 2020, the changes in landscape pattern and fragmentation of the Black‐necked Crane habitat in China over 40 years were analyzed from two different spatial scales using the land cover transfer matrix and landscape index. The correlation between landscape and Black‐necked Crane individual population was analyzed. The most obvious observations were as follows: (1) Although transformation between landscapes occurred to varying degrees, the area of wetlands and arable land in the breeding and the wintering areas (net) increased significantly from 1980 to 2020. (2) Habitat fragmentation existed in the breeding and the wintering area and was more obvious in the wintering area. (3) The number of individuals of Black‐necked Cranes increased period by period, and habitat fragmentation did not inhibit their population growth. (4) The number of individuals of Black‐necked Crane was closely related to the wetland and arable land. The increasing area of wetlands and arable and the increasing landscape shape complexity all contributed to the growth of the individual population. The results also suggested that the number of individuals of Black‐necked Crane was not threatened by the expanding arable land in China, and they might benefit from arable landscapes. The conservation of Black‐necked Cranes should focus on the relationship between individual Black‐necked Cranes and arable landscapes, and the conservation of other waterbirds should also focus on the relationship between individual waterbirds and other landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The buffy‐tufted‐ear marmoset (Callithrix aurita) is a small primate endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome, and one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world, due to fragmentation, loss of habitat, and invasion by allochthonous Callithrix species. Using occurrence data for C. aurita from published data papers, we employed model selection using Akaike Information Criterion corrected for small samples and cumulative AICc weight (w+) to evaluate whether fragment size, distance to fragments with allochthonous species, altitude, connectivity, and surrounding matrices influence the occurrence of C. aurita within its distributional range. Distance to fragments with C. jacchus (w+ = 0.94) and nonvegetated areas (w+ = 0.59) correlated negatively with C. aurita occurrence. Conversely, the percentage of agriculture and pasture mosaic (w+ = 0.61) and the percentage of savanna formation (w+ = 0.59) in the surrounding matrix correlated positively with C. aurita occurrence. The findings indicate that C. aurita is isolated in forest fragments surrounded by potentially inhospitable matrices, along with proximity of a more generalist and invasive species, thereby increasing the possibility of introgressive hybridization. The findings also highlighted the importance of landscape elements and allochthonous congeneric species for C. aurita conservation, besides indicating urgency for allochthonous species management. Finally, the approach used here can be applied to improve conservation studies of other endangered species, such as C. flaviceps, which is also endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and faces the same challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutrient‐poor waters with small Utricularia species have been unknown in most of southern Europe and the Balkans. All the more notable are occurrences of Utricularia ochroleuca and Utricularia minor in north Greece. The records presented in this paper extend the known southeast European distribution boundaries of both species southward, and constitute U. ochroleuca a new species to Greece and southern Europe. U. ochroleuca was found in small peaty pools and seepage sites with base‐poor water within subalpine fens and headwaters, U. minor in very shallow base‐containing waters of spring brooks in upper montane ophiolite environments. The plant species composition of the Utricularia vegetation and its habitats are described. The pertinent vegetation types – Utricularietum ochroleucae and Scorpidio‐Utricularietum, respectively, as well as their higher‐ranking syntaxa – are new to Greece and the Balkans. The vegetation with U. ochroleuca forms part of the Annex I habitat type 3160 of the EU Habitats Directive, which is also new to Greece. Nature conservation status and management conditions of the detected plant communities and habitats with Utricularia in northern Greece are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Range expansion is the spatial spread of a population into previously unoccupied regions. Understanding range expansion is important for the study and successful management of ecosystems, with applications ranging from controlling bacterial biofilm formation in industrial and medical environments to large scale conservation programmes for species undergoing climate‐change induced habitat disruption. During range expansion, species typically encounter competitors. Moreover, the spatial environment into which expansion takes place is almost always heterogeneous. Nevertheless, the impact of competition and spatial landscape heterogeneities on range expansion remains understudied. In this paper we present a theoretical framework comprising two competing generic species undergoing range expansion and use it to investigate the impact of spatial landscape heterogeneities on range expansion with a particular focus on its effect on competition dynamics. We reveal that the area covered by range expansion is highly variable due to the landscape heterogeneities. Moreover, we report significant variability in competitive outcome (relative abundance of a focal species), but determine that this is induced by low initial population densities and is independent of landscape heterogeneities. We further show that both area covered by range expansion and competitive outcome can be accurately predicted by a Voronoi tessellation with respect to an appropriate metric, which only requires information on the spatial landscape and the response of each species to that landscape. Finally, we reveal that if species interact antagonistically during range expansion, the dominant mode of competition depends on the initial population density; antagonistic actions determine competitive outcome if the initial population density is high, but competition for space is the dominant mode of competition if the initial population density is low. These findings enhance our understanding of how competition for space and antagonistic interactions affect range expansion in spatially heterogeneous environments and provide a predictive tool for future species‐specific approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbionts, including parasites, pathogens, and mutualists, can play important roles in determining whether or not invasions by host species will be successful. Loss of enemies from the native habitat, such as parasites and pathogens, can allow for higher invader fitness in the invaded habitat. The presence of mutualists (e.g., pollinators, seed dispersers, mycorrhizae, and rhizobial bacteria) in the invaded habitat can facilitate invasion success. Although there has been a great deal of research focusing on how invading hosts may benefit from enemy losses or mutualist gains, far less attention has focused on how native symbiont populations and communities respond to invasion by non‐indigenous hosts and symbionts. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework examining how symbionts such as parasites, pathogens, commensals, and mutualists can influence invader success and whether these native symbionts will benefit or decline during invasion. The first major factor in this framework is the competence of the invading host relative to the native hosts. Low‐ or non‐competent hosts that support few if any native symbionts could cause declines in native symbiont taxa. Competent invading hosts could potentially support native parasites, pathogens, commensals, and mutualists, especially if there is a closely related or similar host in the invaded range. These symbionts could inhibit or facilitate invasion or have no discernible effect on the invading host. An understanding of how native symbionts interact with competent versus non‐competent invading hosts as well as various invading symbionts is critical to our understanding of invasion success, its consequences for invaded communities and how native symbionts in these communities will fare in the face of invasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diel vertical migration (DVM) is common in aquatic organisms. The trade‐off between reduced predation risk in deeper, darker waters during the day and increased foraging opportunities closer to the surface at night is a leading hypothesis for DVM behaviour.Diel vertical migration behaviour has dominated research and assessment frameworks for Mysis, an omnivorous mid‐trophic level macroinvertebrate that exhibits strong DVM between benthic and pelagic habitats and plays key roles in many deep lake ecosystems. However, some historical literature and more recent evidence indicate that mysids also remain on the bottom at night, counter to expectations of DVM.We surveyed the freshwater Mysis literature using Web of Science (WoS; 1945–2019) to quantify the frequency of studies on demographics, diets, and feeding experiments that considered, assessed, or included Mysis that did not migrate vertically but remained in benthic habitats. We supplemented our WoS survey with literature searches for relevant papers published prior to 1945, journal articles and theses not listed in WoS, and additional references known to the authors but missing from WoS (e.g. only 47% of the papers used to evaluate in situ diets were identified by WoS).Results from the survey suggest that relatively little attention has been paid to the benthic components of Mysis ecology. Moreover, the literature suggests that reliance on Mysis sampling protocols using pelagic gear at night provides an incomplete picture of Mysis populations and their role in ecosystem structure and function.We summarise current knowledge of Mysis DVM and provide an expanded framework that more fully considers the role of benthic habitat. Acknowledging benthic habitat as an integral part of Mysis ecology will enable research to better understand the role of Mysis in food web processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of a functional trait‐based approach to ecological restoration is receiving growing attention worldwide, but lack of knowledge on functional traits and how they link to ecosystem services imposes a major barrier to operationalize such approach. Synthesizing the existing knowledge on functional trait‐based restoration is thus a timely and important challenge. We systematically reviewed the literature to assess how ecosystem services are associated to functional traits across organisms, ecosystem types, and continents. We also assessed the existing trait‐based frameworks to target ecosystem services in restoration ecology. Then, we discussed future perspectives for the field, especially the challenges of applying trait‐based frameworks in megadiverse tropical ecosystems, which have ambitious restoration commitments. Most papers focused on plants (72%), terrestrial habitats (69%), and non‐tropical ecosystems (68%) and monitored ecosystem services and functional traits after restoration started rather than using them as previous targets. Only 12% of the papers targeted the restoration of both services and traits a priori, and 3.8% presented a clear trait‐based framework to target ecosystem services in restoration. The possibility of selecting alternative subsets of complementary species in their provisioning of ecosystem services should make functional restoration more feasible than traditional approaches in species‐rich tropical ecosystems. With this review and our critical insights on the perspectives of applying functional trait‐based restoration widely, we hope to assist broad‐scale restoration programs to obtain higher levels of benefits for nature and human well‐being per unit of area undergoing restoration, going beyond the area‐based approach that has dominated restoration commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Larval habitats of the pest biting midge Culicoides ornatus were identified and characterised in a macrotidal mangrove creek system in Darwin Harbour in the wet‐dry tropics of northern Australia. Sampling was undertaken during the mid to late dry season using submersible emergence traps to indicate larval activity. Substantial emergence was found in two well separated and distinctly different habitats: open creekbanks covered in Avicennia marina (Grey Mangrove) pneumatophores in the upper reaches of small tidal creeks and broad relatively flat areas dominated by Sonneratia alba (Mangrove Apple) at the mouth of the creek system. Intervening areas along creeklines were lined by Camptostemon schultzii (Kapok Mangrove) and did not support emergence activity. Adults emerging from each habitat were conspecific, based on comparison of mitochondrial COI gene sequences and a range of morphological characters. Nine different haplotypes were identified from 26 adults, with four haplotypes common to both habitats. Neighbour‐joining analysis resolved all the haplotypes as a single highly supported clade with an average sequence difference of 1.6%. Features common to the two habitats included occurrence in sheltered mangrove‐lined estuaries; occurrence in soft, fine, silt mud; presence of mangrove pneumatophores; and an open vegetation structure providing partial shade. Dense vegetation appeared to be a limiting factor. The tidal creek habitat was similar to C. ornatus habitats previously described from the east coast of Australia, but neither the Sonneratia zone nor other habitats at such a low tidal elevation have been previously associated with C. ornatus. This is the first detailed account of the larval biology of this important mangrove breeding pest species. The identification of likely C. ornatus breeding sites in Darwin Harbour and other similar ria coastlines of northern Australia should be possible from aerial photographs using the habitat descriptions presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The young-of-the-year (YOY) Argentina hake Merluccius hubbsi remained at particular distances off the seabed at pelagic habitat, in a nursery area located in the San Jorge Gulf off south-western Atlantic. Older specimens were daylight distributed near the bottom in the demersal habitat. In this paper the authors show that the pelagic habitat is favourable for YOY hake compared to the surrounding demersal habitat by decreasing the probability of encounter with larger hake protecting the YOY against conspecific predation, and providing a better food supply. From 303 stomachs of pelagic YOY Argentine hake analysed (60–250 mm), 274 (90.43%) contained prey. Pelagic Argentine YOY hake fed almost exclusively on zooplanktonic crustaceans (Euphausia spp. and Themisto gaudichaudii). From 980 demersal specimens (14–82 cm), 572 (58.36%) contained prey, mainly the lobster krill Munida gregaria, followed by other hakes by cannibalism. The intensity of feeding was higher on pelagic layers. The allometric weight–length relationship revealed that the YOY Argentine hake find sufficient food in the pelagic habitat to live and develop, by increasing their relative body thickness. The cannibalism increases from close to zero when the YOY hake are c. 20 m off the seabed, to between 15% (cold season) and 20% (warm season) when they are 10 m off the seabed. These results suggest that the pelagic habitat is a feeding ground for YOY hake, and it is a favourable one compared to the surrounding demersal habitat by protecting the YOY from cannibalism. Pelagic YOY hakes were less abundant and more distant from the bottom during the cold season (14.3 m) than during warm one (11.4 m), probably because of natural mortality and progressive recruitment to demersal habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of climate on the distribution of taxa has been extensively investigated in the last two decades through Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs). In this context, the Worldclim database represents an invaluable data source as it provides worldwide climate surfaces for both historical and future time horizons. Thousands of HSMs‐based papers have been published taking advantage of Worldclim 1.4, the first online version of this repository. In 2017, Worldclim 2.1 was released. Here, we evaluated spatially explicit prediction mismatch at continental scale, focusing on Europe, between HSMs fitted using climate surfaces from the two Worldclim versions (between‐version differences). To this aim, we simulated occurrence probability and presence‐absence across Europe of four virtual species (VS) with differing climate‐occurrence relationships. For each VS, we fitted HSMs upon uncorrelated bioclimatic variables derived from each Worldclim version at three grid resolutions. For each factor combination, HSMs attaining sufficient discrimination performance on spatially independent test data were projected across Europe under current conditions and various future scenarios, and importance scores of the single variables were computed. HSMs failed in accurately retrieving the simulated climate‐occurrence relationships for the climate‐tolerant VS and the one occurring under a narrow combination of climatic conditions. Under current climate, noticeable between‐version prediction mismatch emerged across most of Europe for these two VSs, whose simulated suitability mainly depended upon diurnal or yearly variability in temperature; differently, between‐version differences were more clustered toward areas showing extreme values, like mountainous massifs or southern regions, for VSs responding to average temperature and precipitation trends. Under future climate, the chosen emission scenarios and Global Climate Models did not evidently influence between‐version prediction discrepancies, while grid resolution synergistically interacted with VSs' niche characteristics in determining extent of such differences. Our findings could help in re‐evaluating previous biodiversity‐related works relying on geographical predictions from Worldclim‐based HSMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Understanding the formation and maintenance of biogeographical breaks is fundamental for developing analyses related to biodiversity and conservation. Biogeographical patterns along China's coast are changing dramatically in the face of climate change and alterations in land‐use. In this paper, we sought to clarify the mechanisms responsible for the formation and maintenance of a biogeographical barrier on China's coast. Location: Coastline of northern China. Methods: We have reviewed literature of research related to biogeographical and phylogeographical patterns of intertidal macrobenthos along the coast of Jiangsu Province and adjacent areas, summarized the distribution patterns and biogeographical breakers. We have also reviewed literature about the processes and drivers on coastal biogeographical breaks, to clarify the mechanisms acting to the northward shift of the biogeographical break. Results: The Yangtze (Changjiang) River Estuary Biogeographical Barrier (YREBB) at 30°–31°N, which serves as a coastal biogeographical boundary for the Cold Temperate Northwest Pacific Province and the Warm Temperate Northwest Pacific Province for marine species, has moved northward to ~33°–34°N due to the changes in habitat continuity, oceanographic circulation and climate factors. Consequently, a new biogeographic barrier for intertidal macrobenthos, the Subei Biogeographical Barrier (SBB) on the central coast of Jiangsu Province, has emerged. Main conclusions: The formation and maintenance of the SBB are closely related to the larval dispersal potential, larval settlement success and post‐settlement population establishment, all of which have been profoundly influenced by anthropogenic environmental changes. The northward shift of the YREBB and the appearance of the SBB provide an excellent model system for investigating the impacts of climate change and land‐use change on coastal biogeographic patterning and for clarifying the mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of biogeographical barriers in the face of the unprecedented environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The littoral zone varies in size among lakes from ∼3% to 100% of lake surface area. In this paper, we derive a simple theoretical scaling relationship that explains this variation, and test this theory using bathymetric data across the size spectra of freshwater lakes (surface area = 0.01–82,103 km2, maximum depth = 2–1,741 m). Littoral area primarily reflects the ratio of the maximum depth of photosynthesis to maximum lake depth. However, lakes that are similar in these characteristics can have different relative littoral areas because of variation in basin shape. Hypsometric (area‐elevation) models that describe these patterns for individual lakes can be generalized among lakes to accurately predict the relative size of littoral habitat when there is incomplete bathymetric information. Collectively, our results provide simple rules for understanding patterns of littoral habitat size at the regional and global scales. Plain Language Summary: Some lakes are comprised completely by littoral habitat while other have almost none, but the factors responsible for this variation are poorly described. We developed simple relationships to explain variation in the size of littoral habitats among lakes. The factors determining littoral habitat size were light penetration, maximum depth, and mean depth. We make several predictions based on these rules including that alpine lakes should have large littoral zones compared to lakes in forested, agricultural, and urban regions, and that lakes should generally have larger littoral zones than reservoirs. We also derive simple equations that accurately predict the relative size of littoral zones in lakes where bathymetric data are incomplete. Collectively, our results and predictions elucidate the connection between lake characteristics and the relative size of habitats within lakes, which provides enough information to understand patterns of littoral habitat size at the regional to global scale. Key Points: Littoral area is smaller in deeper lakes and those with lower light penetration. The relationship is modified by basin shapeScaling relationships can predict the relative size of littoral area for lakes with incomplete bathymetric informationThe littoral zone comprises 78% of Earth's total lake area [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Quaternary, large climate oscillations impacted the distribution and demography of species globally. Two approaches have played a major role in reconstructing changes through time: Bayesian Skyline Plots (BSPs), which reconstruct population fluctuations based on genetic data, and Species Distribution Models (SDMs), which allow us to back‐cast the range occupied by a species based on its climatic preferences. In this paper, we contrast these two approaches by applying them to a large data set of 102 Holarctic bird species, for which both mitochondrial DNA sequences and distribution maps are available, to reconstruct their dynamics since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Most species experienced an increase in effective population size (Ne, as estimated by BSPs) as well as an increase in geographical range (as reconstructed by SDMs) since the LGM; however, we found no correlation between the magnitude of changes in Ne and range size. The only clear signal we could detect was a later and greater increase in Ne for wetland birds compared to species that live in other habitats, a probable consequence of a delayed and more extensive increase in the extent of this habitat type after the LGM. The lack of correlation between SDM and BSP reconstructions could not be reconciled even when range shifts were considered. We suggest that this pattern might be linked to changes in population densities, which can be independent of range changes, and caution that interpreting either SDMs or BSPs independently is problematic and potentially misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Niche and dispersal ability are key traits for explaining the geographical structuring of species into discrete populations, and its evolutionary significance. Beyond their individual effects, the interplay between species niche and its geographic limits, together with the evolutionary lability of dispersal ability, can underpin trait diversification and speciation when exposed to gradients of selection. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, two complementary papers demonstrate how evolutionary lability for dispersal ability linked to niche shift can drive such a model in a context that includes selection. Both papers investigate the evolution of dispersal limitation in arthropods across altitudinal gradients, but using taxa with contrasting ecologies. McCulloch et al. (2019) investigate the evolution of wing loss at higher altitudes in stoneflies, a taxon inhabiting freshwater systems. Suzuki et al. (2019) report a similar phenomenon, but involving wing reduction at higher altitudes in scorpionflies, a taxon associated with moist terrestrial habitats. Here, we compare and contrast the results of both studies to explore their broader implications for understanding diversification and speciation within arthropods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to the journal Systematic Entomology. It highlights submission instructions, subscription and all other information including submission of manuscripts, title of the paper and descriptio of new species. It also refers to aim and scope of the journal to encourage the submission of taxonomic papers on insects.

Shigeru Nakano was a Japanese ecologist whose work crossed boundaries among subdisciplines in ecology, between aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and between different languages and cultures. He published his first paper in 1985 while still an undergraduate, and is well known for his early research on the individual behavior of stream salmonids in dominance hierarchies. Shortly after completing his Master's degree in 1987 he began collaborating with many graduate students and other scientists, including those from the US, and expanded his research to include factors controlling stream salmonid distribution and abundance across spatial scales ranging from local to landscape levels. In 1995 he moved to a research station in southwestern Hokkaido and began new collaborative research on interactions between forest and stream food webs. Nakano pioneered large-scale field experiments using greenhouses to sever the reciprocal fluxes of invertebrate prey between stream and riparian food webs. The strong direct and indirect effects of isolating these food webs from each other on organisms ranging from stream algae to fish, riparian spiders, and bats have revealed new linkages and explained phenomena that were previously unexplained. When combined with similar results from other investigators, they have created a paradigm shift in ecology. Shigeru Nakano was lost at sea in Baja California on March 27, 2000 at the age of 37, but key papers from his 15-year career set new standards for rigor, detail, and synthesis. They continue to be highly cited and inspire new research, and to foster new collaborations among Japanese and western scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of flow‐related factors to benthic organisms, as well as the role of habitat conditions in shaping aquatic communities during low‐flow periods, have been recognised. Despite this, the preferences of macroinvertebrates to the ratio of lentic to lotic habitats at the reach scale have not been accurately quantified in most instances.Aquatic invertebrates and habitat features in a range of temporary rivers in Sardinia were investigated. The investigation focused on the flow‐related characteristics that contribute to defining the lentic–lotic condition of the river reaches. The relation of habitat features to benthic taxa distributions was assessed using multidimensional scaling. The main aim of the paper was to quantify the responses of taxa to the different lentic and lotic habitat conditions by applying hierarchical logistic regressions. Finally, taxon optima were aligned along the lentic–lotic gradient and the responses of different taxonomic groups compared.Unbroken waves and imperceptible flow were correlated with benthic taxa variability, suggesting local hydraulics and turbulence have a major role in regulating community composition. The overall lentic–lotic character of the river reaches was also clearly related to the benthic taxa distribution. More than 80% of taxa were significantly related to the lentic–lotic gradient, and an asymmetrical response curve was the predominant model.Benthic groups showed taxon optima clustered in different ranges of the lentic–lotic gradient. Odonata, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Mollusca preferred clearly lentic conditions. Diptera mainly ranged on the lotic side of the gradient, while Trichoptera were relatively uniformly distributed across the gradient. Ephemeroptera taxa clustered in intermediate lentic–lotic conditions, with two species preferring extremely lentic habitats. In general, optima converged at intermediate and extremely lentic conditions, presumably due, respectively, to the coexistence of different lentic and lotic features and to the highly diverse environmental characteristics under extremely lentic situations.These results support the conclusion that dissimilar ecological factors act on benthic taxa along the lentic–lotic range and species favouring different lentic–lotic conditions are subjected to pressures of different nature. This should not be ignored when defining species preferences and studying community structure or relationships between species in Mediterranean rivers, which cyclically vary their habitat composition. In addition, the uneven distribution of optima of different groups along the lentic–lotic gradient might affect macroinvertebrate metrics when assessing ecological status or establishing reference conditions under variable climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information from diversity inventories was used to study patterns of biodiversity and species distribution, to identify potential priority areas for conservation, and to guide future sampling efforts. In this context, we compiled information on non‐volant small mammal communities from the high Andes (>2000 m). Here, we present an open source dataset containing information on diversity (species composition, number of individuals captured), inventory design (type of traps, sampling efforts), and environment (habitat) for both unpublished and published information. This study covers 630 mammalian communities, geographically distributed throughout the Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. We compiled a total of 26,412 individual records belonging to 240 species; the order with greatest number of records was Rodentia (n = 25,319, 96.06%), followed by Didelphimorphia (n = 373, 1.42%), Eulipotyphla (n = 358, 1.36%) and Paucituberculata, (n = 307, 1.16%). Andean non‐volant small mammal communities harbor a range from 1 to 17 species, with 93.06% of sites being composed of one to five species, 27.78% of sites with species richness varying from 6 to 10 species, and 4.17% sites composed of more than 10 species. Multiple sampling methods were used to survey non‐volant small mammals; the most representative methods were snap‐traps and Sherman traps, or a combination of both, in more than 81% of the studies. This data paper represents the first large dataset of faunal species inventories for the Andes. There are no copyright restrictions associated with the use of this dataset. Please cite this data paper when its data are used total or partially in research or teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive expansion of road transportation often has an impact on the quality of regional habitats. This paper attempts to assess the impact of road transportation on regional habitat quality in economically developed areas. A kernel density analysis was used to characterise the road transportation development in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2015. An Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade‐offs (InVEST) habitat quality model was applied to assess changes in habitat quality. Furthermore, a fixed‐effect regression model was utilised to examine the impact of road transportation development in Jiangsu Province on habitat quality. The analysis indicates that the average kernel density of road transportation in the province increased from 0.109 to 0.551 km/km2 while the habitat quality decreased from 0.51 to 0.48. The development of road transportation in Jiangsu Province has had a serious negative impact on the quality of the habitat. For every 1‐ha increase in land area for road use, the habitat quality index will decrease by 0.066; for every 1 km/km2 increase in road transportation kernel density, the habitat quality index will decline by 0.121. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinator service is essential for successful sexual reproduction and long‐term population persistence of animal‐pollinated plants, and innumerable studies have shown that insufficient service by pollinators results in impaired sexual reproduction ("pollen limitation"). Studies directly addressing the predictors of variation in pollinator service across species or habitats remain comparatively scarce, which limits our understanding of the primary causes of natural variation in pollen limitation. This paper evaluates the importance of pollination‐related features, evolutionary history, and environment as predictors of pollinator service in a large sample of plant species from undisturbed montane habitats in southeastern Spain. Quantitative data on pollinator visitation were obtained for 191 insect‐pollinated species belonging to 142 genera in 43 families, and the predictive values of simple floral traits (perianth type, class of pollinator visitation unit, and visitation unit dry mass), phylogeny, and habitat type were assessed. A total of 24,866 pollinator censuses accounting for 5,414,856 flower‐minutes of observation were conducted on 510 different dates. Flowering patch and single flower visitation probabilities by all pollinators combined were significantly predicted by the combined effects of perianth type (open vs. restricted), class of visitation unit (single flower vs. flower packet), mass of visitation unit, phylogenetic relationships, and habitat type. Pollinator composition at insect order level varied extensively among plant species, largely reflecting the contrasting visitation responses of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera to variation in floral traits. Pollinator composition had a strong phylogenetic component, and the distribution of phylogenetic autocorrelation hotspots of visitation rates across the plant phylogeny differed widely among insect orders. Habitat type was a key predictor of pollinator composition, as major insect orders exhibited decoupled variation across habitat types in visitation rates. Comprehensive pollinator sampling of a regional plant community has shown that pollinator visitation and composition can be parsimoniously predicted by a combination of simple floral features, habitat type, and evolutionary history. Ambitious community‐level studies can help to formulate novel hypotheses and questions, shed fresh light on long‐standing controversies in pollination research (e.g., "pollination syndromes"), and identify methodological cautions that should be considered in pollination community studies dealing with small, phylogenetically biased plant species samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To model regional vegetation cycles through data fusion methods for creating a 30‐m daily vegetation product from 2000 to 2018 and to analyze annual vegetation trends over this time period. Location: The Yellowhead Bear Management Area, a 31,180‐km2 area in west central Alberta, Canada. Methods: In this paper, we use Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) as a data fusion technique to combine Landsat 5, 7 and 8 satellite data and Moderate Resolution Image Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua and Terra imagery, to quantify daily vegetation using Enhanced Vegetation Index at a 30‐m resolution, for the years 2000–2018. We validated this approach, entitled DRIVE (Daily Remote Inference of VEgetation), using imagery acquired from a network of ground cameras. Results: When DRIVE was compared to start and end of season dates (SOS and EOS respectively) derived from ground cameras, correlations were r = 0.73 at SOS and r = 0.85 at EOS with a mean absolute error of 7.17 days at SOS and 10.76 days at EOS. Results showed that DRIVE accurately increased spatial and temporal resolution of remote‐sensing data. We demonstrated that SOS is advancing at a maximum rate of 0.78 days per year temporally over the 18‐year time period for varying elevation gradients and land cover classes over the region. Conclusions: With DRIVE, we demonstrate the utility of DTW in quantifying vegetation cycles over a large heterogeneous region and determining how changing climate is affecting regional vegetation. DRIVE may prove to be an important method to determine how carbon sequestration is varying within fine‐scale individual plant communities in response to changing climate and likely will be beneficial to wildlife movement and habitat selection studies examining the varying response of wildlife species to changing vegetation cycles under shifting climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper presents an overview of introduced alien plant species inhabiting natural thermal waters of Serbia. We recorded the presence of six naturalised aquatic plant species, also recognised as weeds in several regions of the world. This was the first time that Heteranthera zosterifolia (Pontederiaceae), Lemna minuta (Araceae) and Rotala rotundifolia (Lythraceae) were recorded in the aquatic ecosystems of Serbia. In addition, the presence of H. zosterifolia and R. rotundifolia was previously unknown in other countries of Southeastern Europe. The study includes detailed habitat descriptions and impact assessments for all introduced aquatic species in thermal waters in Serbia. All species were prioritised for pest risk analysis using a modified version of the EPPO prioritisation process within the framework of the EU regulation for invasive species. As a result, four alien species may be considered invasive (three at EU and one at national level), while two other species did not show strong invasiveness, but still need to be monitored. In addition, risk management measures were proposed for all invasive species from this study, and they may provide implications for the theory and practical management of weeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review covers selected 2016 articles on the biological effects of pollutants and human physical disturbances on marine and estuarine plants, animals, ecosystems and habitats. The review, based largely on journal articles, covers field and laboratory measurement activities (bioaccumulation of contaminants, field assessment surveys, toxicity testing and biomarkers) as well as pollution issues of current interest including endocrine disrupters, emerging contaminants, wastewater discharges, dredging and disposal etc. Special emphasis is placed on effects of oil spills and marine debris due largely to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Several topical areas reviewed in the past (ballast water and ocean acidification) were dropped this year. The focus of this review is on effects, not pollutant fate and transport. There is considerable overlap across subject areas (e.g. some bioaccumulation papers may be cited in other topical categories). Please use keyword searching of the text to locate related but distributed papers. Use this review only as a guide and please consult the original papers before citing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-consumptive effects (NCEs) - changes in prey behavior or physiology in response to predator threat - are common and can be as strong as consumptive effects. However, our knowledge of NCEs in arthropod systems is lacking. Factors related to study organism and environment have the potential to influence the occurrence and magnitude of NCEs in arthropod systems. While factors such as coevolutionary history of natural enemies and their prey, predator cue, predator or prey feeding mode, and refuge availability have been theoretically and empirically examined, no trends have been proposed for arthropods. We compiled 62 studies, yielding 128 predator-prey interactions, which explicitly examined NCEs in experiments where arthropods were identified to species, using a previously published database of papers from 1990 to 2005 and a new database of papers published from 2006 to 2015. Using these data, we conducted a meta-analysis to explore the influence of organismal and environmental characteristics on the magnitude of predator NCEs. Our analysis addressed the following three questions. 1) Does predator-prey coevolution give rise to stronger NCEs than when predator and prey species did not coevolve? 2) What influence does habitat type and refuge availability have on NCEs? 3) How do predator characteristics (cue type, hunting mode and life stage) and prey characteristics (mobility, life stage, specialization, gregariousness and feeding mode) influence NCEs? We found that while NCEs were similar across most measured characteristics, NCEs on prey activity were significantly stronger when predator and prey shared an evolutionary history. Our results support growing evidence that NCEs have a negative effect on prey traits and that behavioral NCEs are stronger than physiological ones. Additional studies are needed to be confident in any emerging patterns, therefore we identify key gaps in the literature on NCEs in arthropod systems and discuss ideas for moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentinel prey can provide a direct, quantitative measure of predation under field conditions. Live sentinel prey provides more realistic data but rarely allows the partitioning of the total predation pressure; artificial prey is less natural but traces left by different predators are identifiable, making it suitable for comparative studies. We reviewed the available evidence of the use of both types of invertebrate sentinel prey. Fifty-seven papers used real prey, usually measuring predation on a focal (often pest) species, with studies overwhelmingly from North America. The median predation was 25.8% d−1. Artificial sentinel prey (45 papers) were used in both temperate and tropical areas, placed more above ground than at ground level. The most commonly used artificial prey imitated a caterpillar. Up to 14 predator groups were identified, registering a median of 8.8% d−1 predation; half the studies reported only bird predation. Predation on real prey was higher than on artificial ones, but invertebrate predation was not higher than vertebrate predation. Invertertebrate but not vertebrate predation was negatively related to prey size. Predation near the Equator was not higher than at higher latitudes, nor in cultivated than noncultivated habitats. The use of sentinel prey is not yet standardised in terms of prey size, arrangement, exposure period or data reporting. Due to the simplicity and ease of use of the method, such standardisation may increase the usefulness of comparative studies, contributing to the understanding of the importance and level of predation in various habitats worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic activities since the European colonization of the North American Great Plains have drastically altered landscape composition and configuration, subsequently affecting native biodiversity. These contemporary human‐modified landscapes may affect mammal species' distributions, diel activity patterns, habitat use, and interspecific interactions, though a better understanding of these effects on mammals occurring in remaining prairie landscapes is needed. To fill this gap, we surveyed 381 randomly selected sites in 2018, 2019, and 2020 using motion‐sensing camera traps across the western part of the US state of Kansas (7,160,077 ha). Sites were separated by ≥2 km (x¯$$ \overline{x} $$ = 8.16 km, SD = 3.61), and cameras were secured to a metal post 40 cm above ground and randomly oriented toward the north or south. We placed an olfactory attractant (mixture of skunk essence and petroleum jelly) on a wooden stake 3 m in front of each camera. Cameras were in place at each site for 28 consecutive days for each year. We manually identified all mammal species detected at each site, collating these data into a database that included taxonomic information for 14 families of mammals (Antilocapridae, Bovidae, Canidae, Cervidae, Cricetidae, Dasypodidae, Didelphidae, Erethizontidae, Felidae, Heteromyidae, Leporidae, Mephitidae, Mustelidae, Procyonidae, Sciuridae, and Muridae) comprising 28 total species. We recorded 31,178 mammal photographs (nonindependent events) over 27,954 camera trap nights during 2018 (n = 10,351), 2019 (n = 9478), and 2020 (n = 8125). Additionally, we included the time and date of each photocapture. Moreover, we gathered survey‐specific data useful for modeling species‐specific detection along with site‐level habitat composition data taken at each site each year. These data will be useful for examining habitat use, species distributions, diel activity patterns, and spatiotemporal interactions between species and across guilds of mammals occurring in a rapidly changing agro‐prairie ecosystem. There are no copyright restrictions, but we ask researchers to cite this paper when using these data for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several important habitats have become threatened in the last few centuries in the Mediterranean Basin due to major changes adopted in land‐use practices. The consequent loss of natural and seminatural orchid habitats leads to the appreciation of small anthropogenic habitats, such as cemeteries and roadside verges. Colonization of cemeteries and roadside verges by orchids has long been known, but no study to date compared the suitability of these two anthropogenic habitats for orchids. Therefore, in this paper our aim was to survey cemeteries and roadside verges and to compare these two habitats regarding their role in conserving Mediterranean terrestrial orchids. We conducted field surveys in three Mediterranean islands, Cyprus, Crete, and Lesbos, where both cemeteries and roadside verges were sampled on a geographically representative scale. We found a total of almost 7,000 orchid individuals, belonging to 77 species in the two anthropogenic habitat types. Roadside verges hosted significantly more individuals than cemeteries in Crete and Lesbos, and significantly more species across all three islands. Our results suggest that although cemeteries have a great potential conservation value in other parts of the world, intensive maintenance practices that characterized cemeteries in these three islands renders them unable to sustain valuable plant communities. On the other hand, roadside verges play a prominent role in the conservation of Mediterranean orchids in Cyprus and Greece. The pioneer status of roadside verges facilitates their fast colonization, while roads serve as ecological corridors in fragmented landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland comprises an important opportunity for biodiversity conservation worldwide. The likelihood of a farmer fostering habitat for biodiversity has been studied from the perspective of personal or economic drivers. Beyond farm area, the geographic characteristics of the farmland itself—such as parcel sizes, numbers, and distribution—are rarely considered. This paper uses a landholder survey (n = 350, 37% response rate) to explore the variety of farmland management fragmentation and its implications for habitat on farms, specifically ponds, wetlands, and woodlands. This exploratory research was implemented in Nova Scotia, a relatively long‐settled province of Canada, which is subject to inheritance, farmland abandonment, and farm expansion. An index and a typology of management fragmentation were developed, based on geographical impacts (increased distance to travel and edge per unit area), drawing on hypotheses about how geography may affect farmer decision making about habitat. Results suggest that farm size matters more than fragmentation, but also that perceptions of ecosystem services from each ecosystem may have an impact. Suggestions for further research are provided, including alternative methods that could be used and testing these insights in more homogenous agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interventions for riverbank stabilisation are among the most common river rehabilitation actions performed in watercourses. However, most of the interventions focus on traditional methods that, although effective at the structural level (i.e., at meeting riverbank stabilisation goals), usually produce negative effects on the ecological status of the river. Thus, due to the increased requirement for sustainable river management solutions, this paper proposes a methodology for selecting suitable technical solutions for riverbank stabilisation. This has two components: (1) characterising, diagnosing and identifying the condition and potential erosion of a riverbank by collecting information at spatial multi‐scale and (2) selecting suitable technical solutions to support sustainable riverbank stabilisation through using evaluation matrices and analysis of the adequacy of each technical solution to the intervention site's conditions and stream flow characteristics. This approach allows a holistic and integrated analysis of the bank erosion problems and the selection of stabilising technical solutions that are best suited from a structural viewpoint. In order to comply with the WFD (Water Framework Directive) on river environment issues, complementary criteria are proposed that help select from the chosen technical solutions those that improve the diversity of habitats as well as mitigate the aesthetic impact with the lowest cost. The methodology was applied to a reach of the Cértima River (located in the Centro region of Portugal), where field visits were performed to help assess the riverbanks' condition as well as to select technical solutions for riverbank stabilisation. As a result, it was possible to select a set of the most suitable technical solutions to ensure physical and hydraulic required functions, to minimise morphological and landscape changes in the banks, and to promote habitat diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent paper by Coe et al. (2018) calls into question juniper removal for sagebrush obligate species based on results from a correlative study of mule deer habitat use. Our rebuttal clarifies limitations of inference in their study regarding mule deer habitat quality, highlights the importance of winter forage on demography with omitted literature, and discusses the diverse nature of the author's study area and the spatial overlap between mule deer winter range and known juniper treatments for sage‐grouse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the propagation theory of a predator‐prey system in a periodic environment. We consider the invasion process that the prey is the aboriginal, whereas the predator is the invader. If the initial habitat size of the predator is finite, then the asymptotic speed of spreading of the predator is given. Furthermore, the existence and nonexistence of traveling wave solutions are obtained, which defined a minimal wave speed of traveling wave solutions. Our results imply that the minimal wave speed of traveling wave solutions is equal to the asymptotic speed of spreading of the predator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term habitat mapping and change detection are essential for the management of coastal wetlands as well as for evaluating the impact of conservation policies. Earth observation ( EO) data and techniques are a valuable resource for long-term habitat mapping. Although the use of EO data is well developed for the automatic production of land cover ( LC) maps, this is not the same for habitat maps, which are highly related to biodiversity., In a previous paper, we used the Food and Agricultural Organization ( FAO) Land Cover Classification System ( LCCS) environmental attributes (e.g. water quality, lithology, soil surface aspect) for LC-to-habitat class translation. However, these environmental attributes are often not openly available, not updated or are missing., This paper offers an alternative, knowledge-based solution to automatic habitat mapping. When only expert rules and EO data are used, the final overall map accuracy, which is obtained by comparing reference ground truth patches to the ones depicted in the output map, is lower (75·1%) than the accuracy obtained using environmental attributes alone (97·0%). Some ambiguities that still remain in habitat discrimination are resolved by integrating the use of LCCS environmental attributes (if available) and expert rules., In this paper, we use very high-resolution ( VHR) satellite data and LIDAR data. LC classes are labelled according to the LCCS taxonomy, which offers a framework to integrate EO data with in situ and ancillary data. Output habitat classes are labelled according to the European Habitats Directive (92/43 EEC Directive) Annex I habitat types and Eunis habitat classification. Two Natura 2000 coastal wetland sites in southern Italy are considered., Synthesis and applications. In this paper, we study the exploitation of ecological rules on vegetation pattern, plant phenology and habitat geometric properties for automatic translation of land cover ( LC) maps to habitat maps in coastal wetlands. The methodology is useful for relatively inaccessible sites (e.g. wetlands) as it does not require in-field campaigns (generally costly) but only the elicitation of ecological expert rules. This can support site (e.g. Natura 2000) managers in long-term automatic habitat mapping. Habitat changes can be automatically detected by comparing map pairs, and trends can be quantified. This is particularly useful to satisfy the commitments of the European Habitats Directive (92/43/ EEC), which requires Member States to take measures to maintain as, or restore to, favourable conservation status those natural habitat types and species of community interest that are listed in the Annexes to the Directive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species vary in their responses to urban habitat; most species avoid these environments, whereas others tolerate or even thrive in them. To better characterize the extent to which species vary in their responses to urban habitat (from this point forwards "urban tolerance"), we used several methods to quantify these responses at a continental scale across all birds. Using open access community science‐derived data from the eBird Status and Trends Products and two different types of high‐resolution geospatial data that quantify urbanization of landscapes, we calculated urban tolerance for 432 species with breeding ranges that overlap large cities in Canada or the USA. We developed six different calculations to characterize species‐level urban tolerance, allowing us to assess how each species' relative abundance across their breeding range varied with estimates of urban habitat use and intensity. We assessed correlations among these six indices, then compressed the two best‐performing indices into a single principal component (multivariate urban tolerance index) that captured variation in urban tolerance among species. We assessed the accuracy of our single and multivariate urban tolerance indices using 24 test species that have been well characterized for their tolerance or avoidance of the urban habitat, as well as with previously published, independent urban tolerance estimates. Here, we provide this new dataset of species‐level urban tolerance estimates that improves upon previous metrics by incorporating continental‐scale, continuous estimates that better differentiate species' tolerance of urban habitat compared with existing, categorical methods. These refined metrics can be used to test hypotheses that link ecological, life history, and behavioral traits to avian urban tolerance. The dataset is licensed as CC‐By Attribution 4.0 International. Users must appropriately cite the data paper and dataset if used in publications and scientific presentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Rees et al. (2014b), we reviewed the current status of environmental DNA ( eDNA) to monitor aquatic populations. Our aim was to focus on discussion of methodologies used, application of eDNA analysis as a survey tool in ecology, and to include some innovative ideas for using eDNA in conservation and management., Roussel et al. (2015) claim that analysis of Rees et al. (2014b) and other publications highlights the downsides of the method, and they suggest that some conclusions should be toned down. Many of their arguments were covered in our original paper (Rees et al., 2014b); however, they make the point that modelling approaches should be encouraged, and we fully agree with this suggestion., Roussel et al. (2015) also claim that we neglected to recognize that there are two sources of imperfect detection (at the field level and at the laboratory level). We feel that our review paper implies this point., Synthesis and applications. Roussel et al. (2015) reiterate many of the points made in the original paper but do cover some additional areas that improve the debate on the use of environmental DNA ( eDNA). Both the comment (Roussel et al., 2015) and our rebuttal clearly highlight that detailed laboratory protocols and rigorous field sampling design are crucial factors which require sufficient reporting in the literature to allow for experimental comparison and replication. Any development of a new method for eDNA detection should be compared directly with established 'gold standard' methods for the detection of the species or habitat under investigation. None of the issues raised in Roussel et al. (2015) would alter our main conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In conservation, adaptive management relies on the assessment of past actions to improve conservation efficiencies in the future. Conservation management approaches for African elephants have recently changed, however little has been done to assess the effectiveness of these changes. This is a major shortcoming as elephants (and their management) have a considerable influence on other savanna species. Traditionally, the management of elephants has focused on artificially manipulating numbers through culling, water supplementation and fencing. Lately, and specifically in the Kruger National Park, the focus has progressed to promoting ecological processes that may naturally regulate elephant populations. Density‐dependent habitat selection – suggestive of competition for resources – is fundamental in stimulating the regulatory processes that managers expect to promote. In this paper, we evaluated how effective the changes in Kruger's elephant management approach had been in promoting density‐dependent habitat selection. We used 15 years of helicopter‐based surveys and resource selection functions to test our primary prediction that an increase in population density following the cessation of culling generalized dry‐season habitat selection by female elephants in Kruger (i.e. decreased selection of high‐quality habitat and increased selection of lower quality habitat). We found that as densities increased, female occupancy of the Park rose and dry season selection of highly wooded areas, which provide crucial resources for elephant survival and reproduction, weakened. Conversely, density had little effect on the selection of rivers. Rather, high dry‐season rainfall allowed female elephants to select areas farther from permanent water, potentially alleviating normal dry‐season foraging restrictions. Our novel identification of density‐dependent habitat selection for elephants suggests that the change in conservation management in Kruger was effective in promoting a potential driver of population regulation. We suggest that ecological principles continue to provide an effective framework for scientific evaluation and elephant conservation management in Kruger and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The methods of direct gradient analysis and variation partitioning are the most widely used frameworks to evaluate the contributions of species sorting to metacommunity structure. In many cases, however, species are also driven by spatial processes that are independent of environmental heterogeneity (e.g., neutral dynamics). As such, spatial autocorrelation can occur independently in both species (due to limited dispersal) and the environmental data, leading to spurious correlations between species distributions and the spatialized (i.e., spatially autocorrelated) environment. In these cases, the method of variation partitioning may present high Type I error rates (i.e., reject the null hypothesis more often than the pre‐established critical level) and inflated estimates regarding the environmental component that is used to estimate the importance of species sorting. In this paper, we (1) demonstrate that metacommunities driven by neutral dynamics (via limited dispersal) alone or in combination with species sorting leads to inflated estimates and Type I error rates when testing for the importance of species sorting; and (2) propose a general and flexible new variation partitioning procedure to adjust for spurious contributions due to spatial autocorrelation from the environmental fraction. We used simulated metacommunity data driven by pure neutral, pure species sorting, and mixed (i.e., neutral + species sorting dynamics) processes to evaluate the performances of our new methodological framework. We also demonstrate the utility of the proposed framework with an empirical plant dataset in which we show that half of the variation initially due to the environment by the standard variation partitioning framework was due to spurious correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant dispersal and persistence strategies play an increasingly important role in the face of changing climate. Evaluating the restoration potential of soil seed banks as an important component of community resilience is crucial for developing effective grassland conservation and restoration strategies under climate change. Soil seed banks can act as a source for vegetation recovery by preserving species and supporting their establishment by assisting persistence and recolonization. In a systematic review of field and experimental seed bank studies, we evaluated the potential of seed banks in buffering climatic extremities and fluctuations. We found 42 papers testing the first‐order (temperature and precipitation changes) and second‐order effects of climate change (flooding and fire) on the seed bank in grasslands. We showed that persistent seed banks can support passive restoration especially in wetlands and habitats where unpredictable and frequent disturbance was typical in the historical timescale. We found that active restoration by seed addition will be most important in less disturbance‐adapted habitats characterized by species with transient seed banks. In such cases, the introduction of native matrix species that can tolerate the predicted climatic change should be prioritized at degraded sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]